They Do not Symbolize Us: Reclaiming Our Democracy

WITH A NEW FOREWORD ABOUT THE 2020 ELECTION

“This pressing ebook provides not solely a clear-eyed clarification of the forces that broke our politics, however a considerate and, sure, patriotic imaginative and prescient of how we create a authorities that’s really by and for the individuals.”—DAVID DALEY, bestselling creator of Ratf**ked and Unrigged

Within the vein of On Tyranny and How Democracies Die, the bestselling creator of Republic, Misplaced argues with perception and urgency that our democracy not represents us and exhibits that reform is each needed and doable.

America’s democracy is in disaster. Alongside many dimensions, a single flaw—unrepresentativeness—has indifferent our authorities from the individuals. And as a individuals, our fractured partisanship and ignorance on vital points drive our leaders to stake out ever extra excessive positions.

In They Don’t Symbolize Us, Harvard regulation professor Lawrence Lessig charts the best way through which the elemental establishments of our democracy, together with our media, reply to slender pursuits somewhat than to the wants and desires of the nation’s citizenry. However the blame doesn’t solely lie with “them”—Washington’s politicians and energy brokers, Lessig argues. The issue can also be “us.” “We the individuals” are more and more uninformed concerning the points, whereas ubiquitous political polling exacerbates the issue, reflecting and normalizing our ignorance and feeding it again into the system as consultant of our will.

What we’d like, Lessig contends, is a sequence of reforms, from governmental establishments to the general public itself, together with:

• A transfer instantly to public marketing campaign funding, resulting in extra consultant candidates
• A reformed Electoral School, that provides the President a motive to characterize America as an entire
• A federal commonplace to finish partisan gerrymandering within the states 
• A radically reformed Senate
• A federal penalty on states that don’t safe to their individuals an equal freedom to vote
• Establishments that empower the individuals to talk in an knowledgeable and deliberative manner

A soul-searching and incisive examination of our failing political tradition, this nonpartisan name to arms speaks to each citizen, providing a far-reaching platform for reform that would save our democracy and make it work for all of us.